


Exposed Ankles, an Alien Husband, Feminism, and Other Ways Lois Lane Confused Everyone

by zarabithia



Category: DCU (Comics), Justice League: Age of Wonder
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-15
Updated: 2008-12-15
Packaged: 2020-10-06 18:54:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20511848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/pseuds/zarabithia
Summary: At an early age, Lois decided her life would not be boring or typical. It was a promise she kept, much to the delight of her husband and the son they adopted.





	Exposed Ankles, an Alien Husband, Feminism, and Other Ways Lois Lane Confused Everyone

Lois had very few memories of her mother. She'd died of a fever when Lois had been only five, leaving behind a hazy memory at best. Most of her childhood Lois recalled being raised by the housekeeper whose scorn at Lois' thirst for knowledge only served to make the vastness of the General's large, empty home all the more dreadful.

But there were a few distinct images that Lois could still recall years later. She recalled the love of books and the feel of the daily paper rustling against her skin as Lois sat on her mother's lap.

The most vivid instance of memory Lois had was a party, of the sort that the General ceased to have entirely after her mother's death. Lois remembered her mother leaning back on her father's lap, head tilted back gaily and feet swinging care freely off to the side. Ladies around Lois whispered shocked condemnations about the display and the careless nature with which Ella Lane exposed her very _bootless _ankles.

Lois spent the next week praying that her ankles might be as lovely as her mother's when she grew up. It was, perhaps, a sign of things that were yet to come.

\-----------------

She couldn't have been falling for more than a minute or two, really. But when you were plummeting to the bottom of Niagara Falls, time is very relative indeed, and those two minutes were plenty enough time to think three things. The first was _oh, God, I'm falling, you stupid men I told you not to push_! The second was that at least her death did not come at the slow, maddening feverish death that had claimed her mother.

The third was that the position she was falling in gave a full view of her ankles to the entire crowd of male reporters and photographers that had accidentally pushed her over the edge. The General would be horrified when that was the sight that adorned the front page of newspapers around the globe. Despite her terror at her imminent death, Lois couldn't help but me amused at the thought.

Her amusement, and terror, left completely as she landed in the arms of Clark Kent.

\-----------------

"A uniform of a general without having ever earned that privilege," was Sam Lane's immediate condemnation of Clark.

"He saved Lois' life, Daddy," Lucy chimed in. "Surely he cannot be all that bad."

"He's a scientist," Sam Lane spat, his tone making it clear what he thought about _those_ people. "And a monster who places himself above all mere mortals. I'm glad he was there to catch your sister, Lucy, but if either of you had any sense of decorum, you wouldn't place yourself in such positions of needing rescued in the first place."

"I love being a reporter," Lois said, feeling her temper building. "I wouldn't exchange it for all the decorum in the world."

"A reporter," Sam sighed, full of the same disappointment hat he'd carried all his life at never having gotten his sons. "And a Temperance worker. What your mother would say, god rest her soul, if she had lived to see this day."

"I think she'd ask if the view at Niagara Falls is as great as everyone says," Lucy said mischievously.

"Oh, I'd say it was better," Lois answered back cheerfully. "Far, far better than anyone could ever imagine."

\-----------------

"You are only one man," Lois chided, rubbing the shoulder of the man who had stopped her fall and captured her heart. "A super man, perhaps, but still just one man. The riots are not your fault."

"I should have been able to stop them." All the strength Clark normally possessed had seemed to left him entirely and Lois had no idea how to even begin to pick up the pieces.

"How? Would you have broken their legs and arms so that they would remain still?" Lois demanded.

He looked up at her, horrified. "No, of course not!"

"That's what you - and your little league of scientists - would have had to have done in order to stop them," Lois reminded him. "That's all that you could do to stop a riot. I was there. There was nothing else you could have done, and you never could have hurt any of them. Therefore, it stands to reason that you couldn't have stopped them."

He still looked miserable, but slightly less broken. She shook her head at her one-time savior. "You can't catch everyone, Clark."

"I can try."

It might have been taking advantage of his vulnerable state, Lois admitted, but that didn't stop her from kissing him.

\-----------------

So many parties had come and gone in Lois' life. Many she had ignored, for the fact that she had to stay home and study. Her sister had taken to them much more easily, and their housekeeper had scoffed so often at Lois. "Your mother, she loved to dance," Susan had scolded. "Loved to be the lady of the party. Why can you not do the same, and pull your nose of those books?"

Lois hadn't much seen the point, and all the writer's imagination that she possessed had never been able to understand what joy anyone could have gotten out of dancing.

As Clark swept her up, above the crowd and cradled her close, the wind forming the floor and walls of their ballroom, Lois suddenly understood the appeal of dancing very well.

\-----------------

"Is something wrong, Clark?" Lois looked at him with concern. It was supposed to be the bride who was nervous on the wedding night, not the husband.

Husband. Lois rolled the world around in her mind a few more times. It sounded much more wonderful, and far less restrictive than she had ever imagined it would.

"No...I don't know," Clark admitted. "I'm not sure I can even do this without hurting you."

"Well, we are certainly going to give it our best shot," Lois stated firmly. "Wedding nights only happen once in a girl's life, Clark. If you can't do this, that's a matter we'll deal with at a later time. But you aren't going to be excused from your husbandly duties without a good try first."

Clark gave her an uncertain smile. "Yes, ma'am. If I even start to hurt you - "

"I have a mouth, Mr. Kent, and I am not afraid to use it," Lois retorted blithely. She turned her back to him. "You can start by removing this dreadful bane of womankind."

Removing her corset was always a relief but this time, as it fell to her ankles, it was a thrill as well.

\-----------------

It should have been the greatest moment in Bruce Wayne's life. A small child, meeting his hero for the first time, and discovering that hero was everything the child could ever imagine, and more.

That jubilation disappeared in a flash of explosion.

Lois had never much planned on being a mother. Her world did not afford women that choice, to have the career a man would have, and to be a mother as well. By the time she had thought otherwise, she had met Clark Kent... and a child of their own had never been possible, even with the help of the scientific genius that Clark was.

Her world and future plans changed as much as little Bruce's world did, on the day the Waynes died.

\-----------------

"A butler? No."

"Come, Lois, the boy has lost everything - "

"And we'll do everything in our power to make that up to him," Lois agreed. "But Clark, I was raised by a servant. A nosy, busybody little shrill _witch_. I won't allow that boy to grow up with the same type of creature. "

"Lois, the butler is all the child has left of his home. If our society wasn't so set on keeping up appearances of wealth, he would have adopted the boy himself."

"That's playing dirty, Mr. Kent." Clark knew she had felt guilty ever since finding out that their inquiries had stopped the fulfillment of what had probably been the Waynes' last wishes.

Odd how no one including the butler himself had spoken up until after Lois and Clark had already brought the boy home.

"Sometimes I have to, in order to win an argument with you, Mrs. Kent."

Lois sighed and shot a glare up at the creaking of the staircase. Thy apparently needed to work on teaching their newly adopted son some manners against eavesdropping. That should probably be Clark's responsibility, seeing as how Lois eavesdropped for a living at times. "_No_, Clark."

"He would be a big help, Lois. With your job, and my responsibilities - "

"Bruce can come with me on my job," Lois insisted stubbornly. "And with you to yours when mine is too dangerous."

"Lois, can we just give it a couple days of trial? If you don't like him here, or if he is bothersome, we'll get rid of the butler, I promise. "

"No arguing with me about it?"

"No arguing. No questions asked. I promise."

"I'll take you at your word." Lois had ever intention of kicking the butler out of their family immediately after a week of "trial." "But in the mean time, Mr. Kent, you owe me an evening stroll. "

"Of course, my lady. Allow me to fetch our son."

\-----------------

When the news was brought back, courtesy of Captain Jordan, Lois instantly thought of her son, the brave little boy who loved to eavesdrop.

To tell him that he had lost two fathers in the span of a week was not something that Lois looked forward to. But she did it, because the news should not come from a butler.

The loss of her husband was almost enough to show Alfred Pennyworth the door, because it made Lois even more afraid of repeating the mistakes her father had made with Susan the nosy housekeeper.

But as she tucked her son in, she knew she couldn't take Alfred away from him too. So she allowed the butler to stay.

But she would not be the absent parent the General had been, of that, Lois was certain.

That night, after tucking her son into bed, Lois removed her own corset, curled her ankles beneath her in their empty bed, and let herself have the only good, long cry that she planned to have time for.

\-----------------

"Thank you, Alfred."

"Is there anything else I can get for you, Mrs Kent?"

"No, we're fine, Alfred," Lois assured him.

As Alfred left the room, her father looked up from the game of chess that he was losing to Bruce, and commented, "I'm glad you finally have a good servant to help you out, Lois."

How her father rose through the ranks so high without having an ounce of tact, Lois would never know.

"Such a delightful cook, too," Lucy agreed, bouncing tiny Samuel on her lap. "That tart was divine!"

"Fortunate for you that you don't have to rely on Lois' cooking, my boy," Lois' father commented idly, making another ill-fated move.

Lois almost felt sorry for her father. He'd never won against her. He didn't stand a chance against Bruce.

Bruce was polite enough, and merely responded with a quiet "Check."

"I believe wine was a key ingredient, Lucy, darling," Lois commented. "Does he still have your favor?"

"Oh, well." Lucy waved her free hand in a dismissive gesture. "The Temperance Movement is to help those who need it, Lois. Other, less fortunate folk."

Later that night, as Lois walked Bruce up the stairs to tuck him in, she asked lightly, "What did you think of your newly extended family?"

"They're very...interesting," Bruce said, politely enough.

Lois stopped him on the stairs and turned him to look at her. "None of that," she scolded. "Holding in the truth is as good as telling a lie, and I won't stand for it in this household, do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," Bruce said, quickly.

"Then tell me the truth."

"Your father is insane, your sister is a hypocrite, and your brother-in-law is a weasel," Bruce answered. "Present company aside, the only sane member of your family seems to be little Samuel...is that truthful enough, ma'am?"

Lois titled her head and laughed, amazed that part of her could still do so in the aftermath of her husband's death. "Yes, Bruce. That's absolutely perfect. There may be hope for you, yet."

Hesitantly, Bruce gave her a small, sly little smile. "Hope for us both, perhaps."

It was entirely possible that he was right.

\-----------------


End file.
